Snapshots from the Timeskip
by Golden Mean
Summary: Quite a bit happened in the three years Naruto was gone...These are a collection of drabbles that show the situation in Konoha during that time. #2: Who wouldn't be jealous of the lucky girl who got to train with the Hokage? Ino was.
1. Sakura's Troubles

Sakura stared out the window in the Hokage's office. Naruto had finally left with Jiraiya, to begin his training and become stronger. She felt left behind. True, she had a Sannin to train her, but Tsunade-sama was always busy with her duties as Hokage. Why, this very morning she had come across Tsunade-sama passed out on her desk, tired from all the work she was doing.

Sakura sensed someone coming up behind her. "Sure is quiet when that old pervert ish gone. ", Tsunade observed wearily. She grinned. "He isn't around to bug me anymore though. I've been shelebrating all night." She waved an empty sake bottle around, and then tried to drink from it.

Sakura turned and stared in horror at the Fifth Hokage. "Y-you've been drinking? All night? But what about my training? And your _paperwork_?"

"Who cares?" Tsunade replied, and hiccupped.

Sakura had never had the occasion to be in the close presence of a drunk before, and she wasn't sure what to do. Inner Sakura was yelling about Tsunade's irresponsibility, and about how stupid it had been to believe that she had actually been working, but all her outer self could do was stay frozen and wonder, _what have I gotten myself into? _

Eventually Sakura regained control over her vocal cords. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!" A nearby flock of birds took flight.

That day, many torturous screams were heard from the Hokage tower. It was noted that not even Morino Ibiki could produce such good results from prisoners.


	2. Jealousy

"How am I supposed to compete with Forehead Girl when the damn _Hokage _is training her?" Ino screamed. "I can't lose to her. I can't. Shikamaru, Chouji, come with me. I need to train. Our Ino-Shika-Cho formation must be absolutely perfect. Chouji, stop munching on those chips and come with me. _Now. _Shikamaru, just because you're a Chuunin now doesn't mean you're allowed to laze around. _Will you two stop ignoring me!?_ "

Asuma entered Team 10's training grounds with a sense of doom. It would be incredibly hard to get his team to work. _Lazy, Loudmouth, and Fatty indeed!_ Almost as soon as he entered, though, a blur attached itself to him. Ino put on her best sweet and innocent face and asked slyly, "Asuma-sensei, Shikamaru and Chouji won't train with me. "

"What does that have to with me?"

"You're our sensei. You're supposed to make us train."

"You didn't seem to keen on me doing anything of the sort before."

"Well, times change."

_Oh_. Rumors he'd heard about the Hokage's new apprentice connected as he realized what was going on. "What did Sakura do to you, Ino?"

"Other than knocking me out during the Chuunin exams, failing to prevent Sasuke from leaving, and getting herself an apprenticeship with the damn Hokage?!" _Such vehemence!_

"Well, if you want to beat her you need to train. That's the only thing I can think of." Asuma _really _wanted to head off one of Ino's infamous temper tantrums.

"That's what I told you." _She was being cheeky, too…_

Asuma decided that he might as well capitalize on the moment and try to force his to team to work.  
"I'll treat you to barbeque if you'll just comply with her and practice your techniques."

_Munch. Munch._ "Okay," Chouji said happily.

"Shikamaru , if you do what Ino says maybe she'll stop yelling at you."

"Maybe…" He kept staring at the clouds.

"Just do it."

"How troublesome." Shikamaru hauled himself off the ground, managing to make that simple motion look like he was lifting a mountain.

_Some time later…_

"Mind Transfer Technique!"

"Multisize Technique!"

"Shadow Imitation Technique." _Yawn…_

"Shikamaru!" Three voices shouted. Shikamaru was capable of coming up with brilliant strategies… when he wanted to. Right now, he was rather obviously asleep on his feet. A vein pulsed on Ino's forehead as she took a deep breath, preparing to yell into Shikamaru's poor, unsuspecting ear. Asuma laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Calm down!" he hissed. "A shinobi must not be too obnoxious."

"Why's Naruto a shinobi then? And what ninja rule is _that_?"

"Stop arguing with your sensei!" The situation was definitely deteriorating. Soon one of Team 10's infamous shouting matches would be in full swing.

"What's gotten into you anyways?" Shikamaru asked, now awake and definitely not happy about it.

Ino whirled around so that her back was to her teammates. "Nothing." _Geez… hormonal much?_

The rest of Team 10 waited for the outburst on its way the way people in a hurricane's eye wait for the calm to pass.

"It's just that…Never mind, you wouldn't understand anyways. But…"

Her teammates waited for her, amusing themselves with activities such as eating, smoking, and cloud watching.

"It's Forehead Girl!" Nobody responded to Ino's statement.

Eventually Asuma said, "Go on, Ino. Tell us about Sakura." _Whoever would have thought that I would be encouraging one of her tantrums?_

"She thinks she's so perfect and all that! She's completely forgotten about how _I _helped her pass kunoichi class in the Academy. She's forgotten about our friendship! About everything! And now, when I come across her in the Hokage's office, doing her paperwork like a good little girl, she has the nerve to say, 'How may I help you?' in that perfect, big-forehead voice. She's nothing special at all!"

"I thought you two mutually dissolved your friendship when you realized that you both liked Sasuke, implying that you both to forget it?" Shikamaru asked, his eyes fixed on the clouds overhead. _Good man, Shikamaru. I'll treat you to a game of Shougi later for that piece of logic,_ Asuma thought.

"Yes, but…"

"You're jealous, aren't you?" _Bless Shikamaru and his genius IQ!_

Ino slumped down. _Confession time…_ "Today, I saw her punch a gigantic boulder. And then it broke into tiny pieces of gravel no bigger than a pea."

"I used to be the one showing her how to deal with things, the one leading her. Now she's surpassed me and is going places I'll never be able to reach…" _Ahhh…the heart of Ino's inferiority complex. She's not used to losing._

Chouji decided to chip in and offer advice. "If you want to surpass her, ask your dad to teach you stronger jutsus, instead of the same old ones that you can do perfectly anyways and have proved not to work." _Simultaneous flattery and insult._

"Leave us out of it. Chances are you'll be facing Sakura alone, not with us by your side. I don't want to be involved in such a troublesome conflict between women anyways."

"Shikamaru!" his teammates yelled at him again. _He really won't stop, will he?_

Ino grinned, her confidence returning. "Maybe one of those new jutsus will be powerful enough to conquer the…_thing…_in Forehead Girl's mind. Shikamaru, you're coming with me anyways. Let's show them how Team 10 works!"

"How troublesome…"

_Munch. Munch._"Yeah!"

Yamanaka Ino was not accustomed to losing. And she was going to keep it that way.

Asuma stubbed out his cigarette and followed his team, regardless of where they went. (It was most likely the barbeque restaurant.) _I love you guys…I really do._


	3. Lessons and Questions

_Since I didn't do it last time ,Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I do own a laptop and a Microsoft Word program, though._

The topic of the Chuunin exams came up when Sakura and Tsunade were treating a particularly difficult patient. "Shishou," Sakura said as she twisted the ninja's arms behind his back. "It's been about six months since you became Hokage, right?"

"Yes," Tsunade replied. "I know what you're thinking. We need some kind of celebration!" She removed the kunai the patient was trying to stab her with from his hand. "Behave, now. You're in front of two ladies," she addressed him.

"Umm… No. I was actually wondering how I'm supposed to take the Chuunin exams with Naruto off training and Sa-Sasuke—." She broke off in a sob.

"Get a hold of yourself, Sakura! And get a hold of some tranquilizer while you're at it. I think this patient needs it." Tsunade moved any and all pointy objects out of the patient's reach while simultaneously holding him down with one finger.

So the Chuunin exams were coming up again, and Sakura wanted to go. All well and good, but Sakura didn't have the skills to pass yet. And it was dangerous. Look at what had happened last time! Sakura wouldn't go until Tsunade was absolutely confident that she could beat most Chuunin and some lower-level Jounin.

Sakura dried her eyes and searched for the appropriate syringe. You _listened_ when Tsunade ordered you to do something. _Hmm. The patient is about 5'9, 170 pounds, which means the appropriate dosage is…_

She filled the syringe and jabbed it into the patient's arm. His struggles immediately became less pronounced.

"Thank you, Sakura. Now, diagnose him. Then tell me what would be the best method of treatment for this patient?"

Sakura filled her hands with healing chakra and ran the green glow over him for a diagnostic scan. "Numerous stab and slash wounds, one of which is poisoned. Internal bleeding in the area of the…spleen. A concussion and severe chakra exhaustion."

"And?"

"Umm…"

"Think about the patient's behavior."

"Oh! The way he was attacking us earlier! Hallucinations, either caused by the poison or a genjutsu." Sakura ran her hands over him again. "Yup, definitely poison."

"And how would you treat all this, my student?"

"I would fix the internal bleeding first, with medical ninjutsu. The poison doesn't seem to have any other effect than hallucinations, but I would treat that next by administering the antidote. Disinfect and suture the bigger wounds and maybe bandage the others. They are all flesh wounds so they aren't that important, even if the patient carries home a whole bunch of new scars. Not much we can do for the concussion and chakra exhaustion except wait and let him rest. "

"What if the patient was bleeding to death?" Tsunade asked, testing her student's knowledge.

"Then I would fix those first and give the patient a blood transfusion. Shishou, how am I supposed to go to the Chuunin exams without a team?" Sakura had been dwelling on that fact. She wasn't going to let the question go so easily.

"That again!" Tsunade's pleased mood vanished. "You won't! Regardless of whether you have a team or not!"

"WHAT?!" came Sakura's anguished cry. Really, it sounded like her heart was being ripped out.

"Listen to me, Sakura, your medical jutsus have improved incredibly. But your combat skills leave much to be desired. You still can't dodge properly and have trouble pulling off several chakra punches in a row. You aren't at Chuunin level yet, and that's why I wouldn't let you take the exam even if you did have a team."

"I'll ask Kakashi-sensei to let me go to the exams," she screamed petulantly.

"I'm the Hokage. He doesn't have more authority than me. If I say you aren't going to the Chuunin exams, you aren't. If it helps, none of the other teams from your year are participating either. Now, Sakura, implement the treatment for this patient and _stop yelling_, _it's bad for his health_," Tsunade finished thunderously.

Sakura did her best not to cry as she threw a punch at the boulder. It shattered into pieces, kind of the way her heart felt. Sakura had thought she had improved since she had started training under Tsunade-sama. Obviously she hadn't improved enough. Going to the Chuunin exams had been the way for her to prove that she was no longer the weak, foolish, fangirlish kunoichi of her youth. But it had been only six months. What had really been foolish was believing that she could have changed in such a short amount of time. For her, change would take _years. _And all that time Naruto and Sasuke would keep improving, reaching new levels of power, while she…

"What are you doing, forehead girl? Feeling sorry for yourself again? You didn't even punch me to the ground when I snuck up on you," Ino said dryly, referring to the last time she had interrupted Sakura's training.

Sakura flinched at Ino's words. Perhaps they struck at bit too close to the truth. She drew herself up from her fighting crouch and said as haughtily as she could, "As if, Ino-pig. You're too fat to sneak up on anything. "

Ino's face reddened. "Well. If that's the way you're going to treat me I might as well not extend my fabulous offer to you."

Sakura knew better than to point out that Ino was the one who had insulted her first. So she just asked suspiciously, "What offer?"

"Wouldn't you like to know."

"Come on, Ino. Are you going to tell me, or not?"

Ino heaved a huge, theatrical sigh. "Well. You know how Shikamaru's a Chuunin already, right?"

Sakura hardly dared to breathe. Was Ino going to say what she thought she was?

"Chouji and I can't take the exams by ourselves. And you can't take by yourself either. So maybe, just maybe…"

"We could, perhaps, enter a mutually beneficial arrangement and take the exam together," Sakura finished. _Maybe Shishou will let me go to the exams after all!_

"Such big words, forehead girl! Well, I've said what needs to be said. Goodbye, and don't forget the kunoichi get-together that I planned for tomorrow night!"

Sakura watched as Ino double-back-flipped into the trees. _Show-off._ Then she gasped. Party at Ino's tomorrow night—and she had graveyard shift at the hospital.


End file.
